"There is no one in the Federal Government or in the Cabinet whose job it is to go into bat for science - and that is a really worrying development because we know that the Prime Minister doesn't place much stock in science, and especially climate science," he said.

"There needs to be a champion for science within the Government."

But Mr Roy says the organisation is not affected by the ministerial arrangements.

"We spend time focusing on how we can change this nation through the sorts of things that we do. So our view is we have a science minister - Minister Macfarlane is our minister - and again we continue to work productively with the Government," he said.